Flew into Austin last week and rented what was supposed to be a Tesla for a week. Ended up with a 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 instead. Whatever, figured it’d be similar enough.
Big mistake.
I’ve driven about 500 to 515 miles so far and I’ve already spent around $140 just on charging. Most sessions were $25 each, and today I got hit with a $67 charge at a Hyundai dealership charger of all places. Battery was never even below 45 percent on most of these charges.
Right now I’m sitting at a charger for almost an hour just to get it back to 100 percent so I don’t have to deal with it again before flying out Wednesday. The time sink alone has been brutal.
Back home my RAV4 gets about 350 miles per tank and costs $35 to $40 to fill. I would’ve spent maybe $80 total on gas for this whole trip.
Tried swapping to a gas car for the last couple days and Budget wants $100 to do it. Nope.
Not saying EVs are bad. They make sense if you own one and can charge at home. But renting one on a trip like this? Absolute money and time pit. Lesson learned.
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